M.S Estonia
M.S Estonia The M.S Estonia was a Ferry that served on the Baltic Sea which was constructed in Meyer Werft, Papenburg. M.S Estonia was also briefly called the "Viking Sally" from 1980 - 1990, under Rederi Ab Sally, "Silja Star" from 1990 - 1991, under Effoa, "Wasa Star" from 1991 - 1993, under Effdo 3 Oy and lastly "M.S Estonia" from 1993 - 1994, under Estline. She sank in 1994 when her visor on her bow fell off. Construction The MS Estonia was a passenger ferry built in 1979 in the German shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg. M.S Estonia was originally ordered by a Norwegian shipping company but the at the last moment, the Norwegian shipping company withdrew and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, which is one of the partners in the Viking Line. She was planned to be a Sister to the Diana II (MS Bluefort), which was built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi Ab Sally, whom was the third partner to the Viking Line. When Sally took the contract, the ship was resized and the superstructure changes drastically. Meyer Werft, by that time, had constructed many ships for the Viking Line and the partners of Viking Line during the 1970s. The front of the ship, the bow, looked the same as the Diana II, which composed of a upwards-opening visor and a car ramp that was placed inside the visor when it closed. Service On 29 June, 1980, Viking Sally was delivered to Rederi Ab Sally in Finland and was quickly put into service between Turku, Mariehamn and Stockholm. During 1982, she was the largest ship to serve on the Naantali - Mariehamn - Kapellskar route. She sadly suffered some mishaps when she served the Viking Line, when she was grounded on the Aland Archipelago in May 1982 and propellers problems in April of the same year. In 1985, she was rebuilt with a duck tail. Rederi Ab Sally was, by then, suffering some financial problems for most of the 1980s. In late 1987, Effoa and the Johnson Line, who were owners of Viking's rival, Silja, bought the Sally. As a result, SF-Line and Rederi Ab Slite forced Sally to withdraw from Viking Line. She was chartered to Rederi Ab Slite and would continue her service for another 3 years. Eff-John When her charter ended in April 1990, she had an unusual change of service, she was painted in Silja Line's colours, renamed to the Silja Star and was placed on the same route that she served on during her service with Viking Line, the Turku - Mariehamn - Kapellskar route. The following spring, Silja Star began her service with Wasa Line, another company owned by Eff-John. Her name was changed once again to Wasa King and was put on the Vaasa - Umea - Sundsvall route in Sweden. The Wasa King was also the best behaved ship, especially in rough waves and in storms. Estline In January of 1993, when Eff-John merged Wasa Line with Silja Line, Wasa King was sold to Nordstorm & Thulin for use on the Estline's Tallinn - Stockholm route, under the name, Estonia. She was the largest Estonian-Owned ship at the time, which symbolized the independence of Estonia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and showed how Industrious Estonia was getting. The Sinking The sinking of the Estonia happened on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between 12:55AM to 1:50AM, as she was en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. She departed Tallinn at 6:30PM on 27 September and arrive the next morning at 9:30AM. She left with 989 people, 803 passengers and 186 crew. Most of those passengers were from Sweden, some from Estonia and from other countries. The whole crew was Estonian. She was listing to starboard due to poor cargo distribution but nobody noticed it. From the final disaster report, the weather was really rough, with a wind of 15 or 20 meters per second (29 or 39 knots; 34 or 45 mph), force 7-8 on the Beaufort scale and a big wave height of 4 to 6 metres high. The first sign of trouble aboard Estonia was when a loud metallic bang was heard, due to the waves hitting the bow doors at 1:00AM. By this time, the Estonia was just outside the outskirts of the Turku archipelago, over the next 10 minutes, similar noises. At approximately 1:15AM, the visor under the bow swung open and the ship took on a 15 degree starboard list, by 1:30AM, she has listed by 60 degrees to starboard and by 1:50AM, she had listed by 00 degrees to starboard. As water began flooding into the car deck. Estonia was turned to port and reduced speed before all of her engines turned off completely. At 1:20AM, the alarms sounded that the ship was in trouble and told people to get to the top deck but due to the list, many couldn't. Mayday communications were made by the ship's crew at 1:22AM. Estonia directed a call to Silja Europa and only after making contact with her, the radio uttered, "Mayday". Due to the lack of power, Andres Tammes, the third mate, couldn't say where exactly the MS Estonia was, later on, MS Estonia disappeared from radar screens of surrounding ships at around 1:50AM. MS Estonia could only tell Silja Europa and Mariella there position. After that, she sank at 59°23′N 21°42′E in international waters, 22 nautical miles (41 km) on bearing 157° from Uto island, Finland, to the depth of 74 to 85 metres of water. The ship sank stern first after taking the 90 degree list to port. Rescue efforts Mariella, the first of five ferries to arrive on scene, at 2:12AM. A full scale emergency was only declared at 2:30AM. Mariella winched open liferafts into the sea onto which 13 people on Estonia's rafts successfully transferred, and reported the location of the other rafts to Swedish and Finnish Helicopters. The first arrived at 3:05AM. They took the survivors to shore. Of the 989 aboard, 138 were rescued. One died later in hospital. Ships rescued 34 and helicopters 104. The ferries played a small part in the operation. The accident claimed 852 lives, mostly from drowning and hypothermia, as the water temperature was 10-11 degrees celsius. One important victim of the Sinking was Urmas Alender, an Estonian Singer. 94 bodies were recovered; 93 within 33 days of the accident. Around a third who escaped the Estonia died from hypothermia. The survivors of the sinking, were all male and were mostly young, Seven over 55 years of age. Nobody under the age of 12 survived. About 650 people were still inside the ship when it sank, and are believed to remain there. The commision estimated that 310 people reached the top deck but 160 boarded life rafts and lifeboats. Cause of the sinking The sinking of the MS Estonia changed many laws on Ferry safety and changed some safety regulations in liferaft design, similarly to the Titanic disaster in 1912. Investigation and report The wreck was examined and taped by underwater vehicles and divers. The report notes that the visor and ramp have been torn off its hinges. The bridge was built to far back for the crew to see the visor at all. The metallic bang was the sound of the visor's mechanisms failing and the other noises was the visor flapping against the hull as the locks failed, before tearing free and exposing the bow ramp. The failure of the bow ramp allowed water to gush into the car deck, which caused the ship to capsize and sink. RORO ferries are also vulnerable to capsizing if water gets into their car deck or cargo deck. The same cause would happen to the MS Herald of Free Enterprise, but the ramp was left open by a crew member, seven years earlier. The crew failed to reduce speed of the ship and investigate the sounds coming from the car deck and for being absolutely oblivious to the massive list to starboard due to the water entering the vehicle deck, as well as a lack of guidance from the bridge. The visor was in fact, under-design. Decks and Facilities